Alcohol Drinking as a Vital Sign

Overview

This trial is active, not recruiting.

training & tech support for delivery of alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment

Sponsor

Kaiser Permanente

Collaborator

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Start date

January 2010

End date

October 2012

Trial size

466000 participants

Trial identifier

NCT01135654, CN-09JMert-03-H, R01AA018660

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and
Referral to Specialty Chemical Dependency Treatment (as appropriate) by Non-Physicians
versus Primary Care Providers (versus control group) is more likely to be implemented and
more effective at reducing unsafe drinking.

Study Design

training & tech support for delivery of alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment

We provide training and technical support for providers to conduct Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment. The training is based on the NIAAA clinician's guide to "Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much".

training & tech support for delivery of alcohol screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment

We provide training and technical support for providers to conduct Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment. The training is based on the NIAAA clinician's guide to "Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much".

Primary Outcomes

Measure

Proportion of patients screened for alcohol

time frame:
One year

Proportion receiving Brief Intervention among those who screen positive to screener.

time frame:
One year.

Proportion of patients referred to treatment

time frame:
one year

Secondary Outcomes

Measure

Changes in quantity of alcohol consumption - average weekly consumption

Additional Information

This health services implementation study is a clustered, randomized trial. We propose to
randomize primary care clinics to three arms—a control condition and two alternative modes
of delivery of the NIAAA Clinician's Guide to Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and
Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in primary care settings. In the Primary Care Physician or
"PCP" arm, PCPs will be trained on the SBIRT protocols outlined in the NIAAA Clinicians'
Guide and conduct brief intervention and referrals as needed. In the Non-Physician Provider
or "NPP" arm, Medical Assistants will be trained to use the NIAAA screener and enter the
results in the Electronic Medical Record, and NPPs (e.g., Behavioral Medicine Specialists,
Clinical Nurses and Health Educators) will conduct brief intervention and referral
activities. The SBIRT content, based on the NIAAA Guide, is the same in both the NPP and PCP
arms; we compare delivery by the two types of providers and versus the control condition, in
which providers and staff will not receive any training on SBIRT protocols. We examine
implementation outcomes: rates of screening, brief intervention, follow-up screening and
brief intervention, referral to Chemical Dependency treatment, and alcohol use disorders
medication rates. We also include, as secondary analyses, an effectiveness study examining
patient outcomes by study arm.